Why Do Parents Homeschool Their Kids? Should You? ...it's not just for the bean bag chairs!

Posted May 22, 2013

From the perspective of someone that was homeschooled, learn why he believes homeschooling is a great education....

A few years ago, I began becoming much more familiar with homeschooling because we started selling and donating a lot of bean bag chairs for homeschool classrooms.  Turns out bean bags are perfect for encouraging students to read, study, and focus on their education.  I had not thought much or known much about it until these great folks made me more aware of the option to school at home.

Homeschooling has become so much more prevalent these days as compared to when I was growing up.  Back when I was a kid, it seemed that almost every child went to public school, a handful went to private school, and I didn't know anyone that was homeschooled.  I didn't even knew anyone that knew anyone that was homeschooled.

My friend, Mick, was homeschooled.  He is an interesting person and writer, with knowledge in a wide range of subjects from Autism to video games.  Mick is a self-starter and very confident. He clearly got a great education and seems to have been socialized quite well.

One of the downfalls I hear a lot about homeschooling is that the kids don't get the opportunity to socialize with their peers.  While this could be the case, most homeschooling parents nowadays seem to have a handle on the need for socialization and peer interaction.  So they encourage their kids to participate in extra-curricular activities, sports, dance, etc. to gain that social interaction.  Homeschooled kids aren't shut in a windowless home classroom reading books and doing math by themselves, folks!

Anyway, I wanted to get Mick's perspective on homeschooling since he is a product of this method of education.  Below is what Mick wrote.

**Begin Mick's take on homeschooling**

More Efficient.

Just about any homeschooler parent or child knows how much more efficiently a home education can progress. Teaching a few kids at home, each at their own pace beats teaching 20 to 30 kids at a standardized pace every time. But there’s a lot more to homeschooling than that.

It’s inarguable that public schools are designed to get kids into college. And colleges are designed to train future employees. Go to school, work hard, get a good education so you can get a good job, right? The problem is, lots of those jobs don’t exist anymore, so for a lot of people, public schools and subsequent colleges have become standardized, expensive, decades long bridges to nowhere.

EQ versus IQ.

Education is critically important, but what kind of education are we talking about? If you want your child to learn to follow orders, read and study what they’re told, match the pace of all those around them, and feel inadaquate when their strengths don’t match their peers’, public school is the way to go. The most important aspects in a child’s education are not what public schools emphasize; a few subjects circling around verbal and mathematical intelligence, but are instead the development of emotional quotient and self-education skills.

The emotional quotient, or EQ, helps a child develop self-mastery for important skill sets like self-discipline and delayed gratification. And EQ, unlike IQ, can be nurtured and developed through positive reinforcement and good examples. A sure way, unfortunately, to inhibit its development is to surround a child with young peers left to develop their own social rules and hierarchies, particularly in an over-capacity classroom where the teacher siimply doesn't have enough arms, eyes, and ears. Sound familiar?

Education That is Applied.

Now the phrase self-education is a little redundant, because in reality, getting educated is not how well you’ve absorbed a collection of facts; a textbook is not considered educated. Education is actually the ability to acquire the needed knowledge and then apply it.  I repeat, apply it. Not applying it by writing down all your memorized facts on a sheet of paper, but applying it in the real world.

With the wide accessibility of the internet, every bit of information that could be taught on a school blackboard or written in a textbook is available at a child’s fingertips. So what good is teaching a child to memorize dates in history when she can google it on her cell phone? Instead, a child needs to learn how to access the information he requires, and then apply it in the real world; the world of people, and not scantron tests.

Homeschooling frees children from a standardized environment, and the parent as a patient, self-educated teacher, can meet a child at their individual level of need. With the exception of highly specialized professions, like doctors and lawyers, standardization of education is a detriment. But you don’t necessarily have to choose one or the other.  Lots of parents lead busy lives, so if you need public school as a free daycare and a way for your child to socialize, then just make sure you continue your child’s education, and your own, at home.    

Offers a Tailored Learning Environment

In a public school setting, you are limited by the school's administrative and financial budgets, and have to go through a ton of red tape to procure items needed for your classroom.  You're also limited by the rules governing what you can and cannot offer your students. For example, perhaps certain books that may have too much religion, or learning tools that are not officially approved.  In a homeschool, you have full control over what you can offer your kids.  You can provide books and other tools that your particular children need and enjoy, making their learning environment richer and more tailored.  Take seating - every classroom needs it.  At home, you can offer bean bag chairs that will encourage kids to read and focus, especially those with learning disabilities, ADD, ADHD, even physical handicaps. A typical public school is only allowed to give kids traditional, rigid chairs which are not conducive to long periods of learning.  What's going to keep a kid more engaged?  A hardbacked, uncomfortable chair or a soft, comfy bean bag?

**End Mick's pespective**

Now, you may not agree with everything Mick believes about education and homeschooling.  You may find some of it even a bit harshly biased towards homeschooling versus "regular" institutionalized education.  But, I think this is a great introduction to some good conversations about what may be best suited to your specific children.

Do you homeschool your kids?  Were you homeschooled yourself?  Please share your thoughts and perpectives!

Yours truly, Jade